Review of Viva Villa! (1934) by Les E — 06 May 2009

Jam-packed with racist b.s., this reminded me of the original Scarface in a bad way. This lacks that film's great focus and drive. Beery's portrayal is equally crude and self-contradictory, but less overtly cro-magnon than Muni's. Villa is depicted alternately as a coward, homicidal bully, rapist, and pitiable hero. The symbolism is driven into the ground. This pastiche has nothing to do with any specific stereotype or revisionist agenda, but is just erratic and broad.

There are some great battle scenes thanks to Wellman, and many nice establishing shots no doubt left over from Hawks remaining footage. But Conway carries the show, in ham-handed fashion. A few interesting sequences carry it along, and interesting portrayals of the media and foreign powers. But it's largely a failed, moralistic epic of racism too lacking in any real knowledge of it's subject to distort or inflate.